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Openreach - Summer Leave 2009

11 March 2008

The CWU has had a series of meetings with Openreach, seeking to remove the barriers encountered in trying to book annual leave.

This has included changes to process, reviewing thresholds and the removal of a significant number of "attributes". Work continues to improve the situation for all AMU managed people.

In the ongoing review of leave booking it became apparent there was a problem with overbooking. The CWU team feel this is probably due to the general uncertainty regarding the ability to get leave at a time of the individual's choice. What is certain is that an individual booking four weeks and then subsequently cancelling two of them does cause problems for others.

Last year, a trial was run in London Home Counties with the aim of smoothing demand by preventing overbooking of leave. Since then there have been a number of joint discussions culminating in the current proposed way forward.

All affected people should be briefed during March.

The process will limit people initially to only being able to book two weeks to allow everyone a fairer chance of booking leave. The process does not restrict the ability/right to take four weeks (144 hours) leave between May and September. Head office will keep this under review.

Please contact any branch office with feedback on this process or other issues with booking annual leave.